


Magical Leaf

by fragile_vampire



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang is such a child, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bad Poetry, Boys Kissing, College, Cute, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting high, Humor, M/M, Metaphorical Flirting, Moronosexual, Poetry, Santa Cruz, Sokka is so dumb, Tarot, They're perfect together, UC Santa Cruz, University of California Santa Cruz, Weed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24452779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragile_vampire/pseuds/fragile_vampire
Summary: "Sokka came to him. His tied-up ponytail rode his head as he crawled on his knees over the line of Pokémon cards between them. Aang only smiled once Sokka's eyes closed."--Sokka's heartbreak over Yue's impending graduation is cured by Aang's unconventional approach to Tarot reading, and the two decide to play around a bit in the dorm room.
Relationships: Aang/Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	Magical Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> A college AU set in University of California, Santa Cruz

Sokka's ponytail was cute. A blue hair-tie lassoed its dark brown strands and raised them loftily in a tuft over his head. Aang was obsessed with it. His eyes followed it as it bobbed along with the beat of Sokka's emotive expressions as he waved his arms and shook his head enthusiastically as he told his story.

The problem was, Aang wasn't really paying attention to the words he was saying, so when Sokka paused his rambling after fifteen minutes or so, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to react.

"You probably think I'm being silly and dramatic, but I just feel, _so_ much," Sokka finished, as Aang stared at him wide-eyed.

"Nah, dramatic? You're valid," encouraged Aang, with an innocent smile, blanketing all appropriate answers to the statement which he lacked any discernible context for. His Abyssinian cat, Momo, was curled up in his lap, and he was petting him idly as he watched.

The smell of incense was strong in Aang's room. It wasn't to hide the scent of weed, as incense often is, but because he liked the atmosphere of it. That's not to say he didn't smoke a blunt here and there, because boy, did he ever.

Aang lived in Porter College, and although Sokka was a Cowell kid, he often came across campus to visit him in his dorm. They met at the beginning of the year in a General Education class titled _Psychology & Religion_. He, Sokka, and Sokka's sister - who was a year younger than them, but skipped a grade in high school to graduate at the same time as her brother - were in a study group together for that class, and they survived Fall Quarter together while working out abstract concepts like myth and the unconsciousness. One class, the professor took them all out to a drum circle in Porter Meadow where they all got high, and then crashed at Aang's place afterwards. Sokka and Katara (Sokka's sister) would drop by occasionally ever since.

Today, Sokka had texted him something cryptic and dramatic and said he needed someone to talk to. Aang texted back _"cool im hear to listen and not just cuz i dont wanna do my proofs homework LOL"_ so here Sokka was, pouring his heart out to Aang about something Aang vaguely understood, because he was not actually paying as much attention to his words as his bouncing ponytail.

"This must be how Romeo felt," exhaled Sokka seriously. His mist-blue eyes fell sadly to the floor, and Aang sensed he was kinda bummed about whatever he was saying.

Then it hit him.

"Oh, is this about that girl from your _Reading Shakespeare Within Modern Media_ class?" he asked perceptively.

Sokka gave him a despairing look. "Yes, Aang, it is. Have you even been listening to me?"

Aang leaned his head back against his bed. He was sitting on the floor with his back to the wooden bed-board. "She had a really cute name, right? Yui?"

" _Yue_ ," Sokka corrected annoyedly. "You don't even care, do you? That she's going to graduate this quarter. And that I -- I screwed up my chance to tell her how I feel. I was going to confess to her after class, but I just, _completely_ blew it."

"What did you tell her?" Aang pressed.

Sokka pulled a folded piece of lined binder-paper from within his shirt and gave it to Aang.

"I was going to read it, but then I just asked if she wanted to smush and she started laughing and I just - booked it." Aang received the paper and began to read with great interest.

_My lover's eyes are pale like misty moons_

_What love I thought I knew 'til now is done_

_For when I look upon such pretty eyes I swoon_

_And by your sunset smile I am undone_

"Garbanzo beans, Sokka, this is so good!" Aang exclaimed, pouring his eyes into the sonnet with glee. Sokka was nervously rubbing his index fingers together in shame.

_I tell you, girl, you are completely lit_

_For none in UC Santa Cruz compare_

_Your beauty only equals your own wit_

_Your words so clever and your skin so fair_

Aang’s face erupted with joy at the artful use of anachronisms within the sonnet. It was charming and hilarious to him in its delightful irreverence.

_From here on in, your heart is lord of mine,_

_For never had I passion this divine._

"Oh man, Sokka, this is dope," he exclaimed with a smile. Sokka didn't smile back.

"Yeah. Too bad the girl I like is never gonna hear it."

"Oof," winced Aang concernedly. "Hey, listen buddy, you're a real romantic fellow. I didn't notice that until now, and I'll bet a lot of girls are gonna notice it someday and appreciate you for it."

Sokka swayed a little in his seat, his eyes still misty with droop but showing some life of hope. He was leaning against Aang's roommate's bed, who was out of town. His side of the room was markedly different from Aang's. While Aang's walls were plastered with eclectic posters ranging from K-Pop groups to _Selena Gomez_ to _Dragon Ball Z_ , his roommate's side of the wall was decidedly themed with black banners of _Fall Out Boy_ , _My Chemical Romance_ and _Adam Lambert_.

Sokka sighed. "You really think so? You think I'm romantic?"

"A hundred percent," insisted Aang, returning the paper to him. "You're gonna get a great girlfriend some day."

"I donno," dismissed Sokka. "I already know my past. My past is me getting rejected by every girl I ever liked. And I know my present, which is the same. Why would my future be any different?"

"Hmm," thought Aang. It didn't make sense to him that girls kept rejecting this guy. He was a guy who had it all - he was funny, cute, a jock to boot. There was no reason for him to be unpopular. Well, maybe girls didn't like his aggressive romanticisms, but he couldn't understand why. If he were on the receiving end of it, he would think it was really charming.

"Sometimes, you don't know your past or present as well as you think you do," he suggested, reaching under his bed for a crate where he kept boxes of decks. "Have you had a Tarot reading before?"

"You mean those things where crazy ladies say vague things and predict your future?"

Aang shook his head. "Not predict. Read. And it's not crazy, it's a spiritual science, worthy of great respect," he explained, shuffling the deck in his hands. "Tarot lets you interpret your energy into something meaningful."

"Those are Pokémon cards, though," Sokka pointed out. "You're shuffling Pokémon cards."

"Hell yeah. I'm gonna read your energy with these." He cut the deck in half with dead seriousness, and rotated one half before stacking it back on top of the other. Then he passed the deck to Sokka. "Here, shuffle these, and while you do, think about a question you have in your mind. Like, about your romantic situation, maybe."

Sokka waterfalled the deck with reluctance, and an annoyed look on his face. "Shouldn't we use an actual deck? This seems kind of stupid. That Tarot itself isn't stupid. It is."

Aang smiled. "Oh no, it's fine, I don't have a proper Tarot deck," he explained.

"Well, great, this is exactly what I wanted - a jank Tarot reading."

Aang didn't mind his complaints. He already knew that Sokka had no respect for spiritualism from their _Psych & Religion_ class, and he kind of liked that arrogant stubbornness in him. He seemed to think dunking on spirituality made him look smart or sophisticated, and in fact it made him look dumb.

Luckily, Aang was moronosexual. More specificially, polyamorous-pan-moronosexual was the classification he received at the end of the three hour _Discover Your Sexuality_ seminar he had attended in Kresgke around Spring Break.

"Okay," said Aang, receiving the shuffled deck from Sokka's hands. "Let's see what we can find out." He flipped the top card of the deck onto the ground between them. It showed a green-bordered card with a spiky blue pinecone-like creature surrounded by pastel flowers.

"Oh, nice, it's a Pineco," declared Aang, as if Sokka was supposed to know what that meant.

"Let me guess - it's a Grass type, because of the little leaf at the top right."

"Eh, you would think that," answered Aang, "but actually Pineco's a Bug type and because there's no Bug type in the card game he gets called a Grass type, even though he's not."

Sokka scratched his head in confusion. " _Why is a pinecone a bug?!_ That doesn't make any sense! They grow on trees!"

"It's not a pinecone, Sokka. It's a Pineco."

Sokka grunted with frustration and folded his arms. "So, what does this... _thing_ , mean?"

"Hmm," thought Aang. "Well, as you can see, this Pineco has two moves. One is Focus Energy. It says 'During your next turn, Pineco's Surprise Attack attack's base damage is 80."

"'Surprise Attack attack'," echoed Sokka with sarcasm in his voice.

Aang didn't pay attention to his grumbling. "Surprise Attack's base damage is usually 40, so that makes it twice as strong. Surprise Attack only works if you flip a coin and get heads though. It's not very reliable."

"So, let me guess- that means my luck with ladies is random and inconsistent," Sokka assumed.

"Not only that," continued Aang, "but it's twice as effective if you concentrate first on what you wanna say."

"Hmm," thought Sokka, audibly mulling over the accuracy of the assessment.

"Anyway, this is what _was_. Pineco is your past. Let's find out what your present is." Aang flipped another card from the top of the deck. This time, a bright orange card with a fire breathing dragon on it came out, and Sokka immediately recognized the design.

"Oh my god, dude! I'm a Charizard," he exclaimed triumphantly with a stupid grin on his face.

"Oh, woops, my bad," apologized Aang, tossing the Charizard card aside. "That card's a fake. I picked it up at a garage sale a long time ago. I mainly kept it around as a meme. I should just get rid of it. I mean, look," he offered, showing the card to him. "It has 900 HP. Isn't that crazy? Lmao."

Sokka's face returned to a despondent frown.

"Aw, don't worry about it Sokka. I'm sure you'll get a good card. A real one, this time."

Just then, a knock came on the dorm room door. Aang excused himself to answer it, and when he opened the door, an older student was there, holding a large cat in his arms.

"Aw, you found Appa," he said happily. The guy at the door sighed and dropped the cat named Appa to the floor, who darted into the room and immediately bulldozed Momo with an affectionate headbutt.

"Dude, Aang, you gotta be careful. If the smarmies figure out you got illegal pets I can't do anything about it."

Aang nodded. "Aww, thanks Jet," he said. "You're the best R.A.," he smiled. "They're not pets though. Appa and Momo are friends!"

"Just keep 'em indoors," Jet warned. "Also, be careful about burning too much incense. I can smell it from my room down the hall." Aang wasn't supposed to be burning incense at all, and much less keeping animals. Luckily, no one really gave a heck about enforcing the rules against him, for at least two reasons. One was because he was such a harmless guy that none of the rules he was breaking were really a cause for concern. The other was that he had made a habit of sharing his snacks with nearly everyone on the floor, so no one really wanted him to get kicked out.

With those words, Jet left, and Aang closed the door and sat back down in front of his Pokémon cards, ready to continue reading. Sokka seemed distracted though.

"Wait - that's Jet?" Aang nodded. "The Jet my sister went out with? He's your RA?"

"Yeah. He's super chill. I think you'd like him."

Sokka rubbed his face into his knees as he curled up in a ball. "God, how does she hook up with hot boys like it's nothing. Why doesn't that run in the family?"

Aang wondered if his ears deceived him. "You wanna hook up with boys?"

Sokka looked up, and then away, saying "Well, I'm not opposed to it, although I haven't done anything like that before."

Aang was suddenly very intrigued.

 _I'm gonna sleep with this boy at some point_ , he realized.

He flipped over the next card in the deck. Out came a rusty, folded card with a blue turtle on it. It was clearly very old, and had seen a number of different stains.

"A Wartortle," Aang declared. "One of the wisest Pokémon, they're super old."

"Yeah, I gathered," Sokka joked, prodding the wrinkly card with a finger.

"So, Wartortle has Withdraw."

"Huh. Withdraw," repeated Sokka with skeptical interest.

"Are you withdrawing from something?" Aang posed gently.

"Well, I don't know what that even means."

"Well, when you're using Withdraw, you can't take damage. See? 'Prevent all damage done to Wartortle during your opponent's next turn'," he read from the card.

"Well, I guess that's relatable. I mean, who wants to take emotional damage after all."

"But you sometimes do," considered Aang thoughtfully. "That poem you wrote was super vulnerable. Wartortle also has Bite, you see. That's an aggressive move."

"Yeah, so I used Bite, A.K.A., poured my heart out into a sonnet, and then it only brought me pain. Basically I think I should just stick to Withdraw from now on," he said half-jokingly.

"I liked it," Aang reminded him.

"Well, you're..." Sokka trailed off, seeming to lose his train of thought. "Can you just give me the last card so it can be over?" he asked. He made it seem like he didn't care what the last card was, but Aang could tell he was half-serious in his curiosity.

"Very well," said Aang, revealing one final card from the deck. The card was a green Pokémon, seemingly like a flower dressed in a white skirt.

"Kirlia," read Sokka, leaning in to absorb the text. "Hey, this one has a move called Sweet Kiss. And one called Magical Leaf. And she's really cute. This is one cute Pokémon," he declared. "So what does it mean? Does it mean a Sweet Kiss is in my future?"

"Oh no, Sokka," Aang sighed. "This card is reversed," he pointed out, showing him that the Kirlia was oriented in the opposite direction as the other cards. "You know what that means?"

Sokka's face turned to horror. "That it's the opposite meaning and I'm never going to get a Sweet Kiss from a pretty girl ever?"

"What? No, don't be ridiculous," Aang dismissed. "Reversed cards just mean that the energy is internally expressed, as opposed to externally."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means," said Aang, "that you have to kiss me to find out."

Sokka stared at him blankly for a minute before letting the word "oh'' exit his mouth ashamedly. His pretentious dismissal of the power of Tarot was fading away. Yes, in fact it seemed that the Tarot cards had interpreted his energy perfectly.

Aang didn't even need to move. Sokka came to him. His tied-up ponytail rode his head as he crawled on his knees over the line of Pokémon cards between them. Aang only smiled once Sokka's eyes closed. It would've been too obvious if he showed him how much he wanted to taste his lips. As Sokka leaned over his pretzel-crossed legs, Aang leaned in only slightly - just enough to surprise him and put his lips on his before they reached him.

The surprise attack was super-effective. Sokka's eyes opened with shock and he pulled away with alarm. They had kissed - it happened. It was clearly an alarming reality to the boy Aang was facing. He withdrew slightly, although Aang could tell by his reluctance that he wanted more.

Aang rolled his knees to his side and lay down between Sokka's arms, which were pressed into the ground unevenly. 

"Use Bite," Aang commanded. Sokka hesitated, wondering whether he would continue to withdraw. In a moment of sudden decision, however, he lowered his mouth onto Aang's neck and gave him a light nibble beneath the jaw.

"Haha, ow," said Aang. It actually hurt, but he had no one to blame but himself for that. Sokka's misty eyes looked down at him. Aw, _man_ was he cute. Aang wanted to kiss him again. "I bet you can do a really Sweet Kiss, if you focus hard enough," he teased.

Sokka was ready to try. He leaned in, this time, closing his eyes and pronouncing his lips with buttery pucker. They pressed into Aang's, and to his delight, they were ripe to taste. He sucked on them with his own for a solid minute before he could pull himself away.

When he got up, he reached under his bed again, this time pulling out a wooden drawer that had a funny smell.

"What's that?" Sokka asked, his voice bemused, and his eyes decidedly bedroom.

Aang wasn't ready to take him to bed yet, though. He needed to get high first. "A Magical Leaf," he professed, rolling out a blunt with some powdery-green musky grass and handing it to his friend, who laughed nervously a little. The two of them hadn't gotten high together since Fall Quarter. Aang lit the cigar and then lit his own.

"My question was, 'am I bi?', by the way," Sokka announced. Just as Aang suspected, the whole Tarot reading was a journey to the center of Sokka's deeply repressed and tense mind. _They just don't treat 'em right at Cowell,_ he thought. Maybe if he came over and got high with him more, he’d be a happier guy.

"Hehe," laughed Aang. "'Bi by the way.'"


End file.
